On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
arched and coloured as rainbows , and supported by columns of erystal and gold , and stretching out unto the Day of Doom ; to gaze on which any eye but a spirit ' s would recoil o ' ertasked , and fall back upon itself withered , pain-stricken , and lost . From the focus of the radii fell ample and undulating slopes , overspread with a mantle of the richest verdure ; at the foot of each slope lay a vast and beautiful lake , many leagues in circumference , whose waters were of a deep , silvery , pellucid green ; in the midst of which arose fair islands of eternal flowers , of celestial
roseate and carnation blooms ; whose aroma ascended to heaven , and filled the air around with everlasting incense , giving to soul g , nd sense intense and ravishing delight . Here all that is impressive in nature and wondrous in art prevailed ; it was a realization such as the most exalted and brilliant mind , Tevelling in all the felicities of a rich and poetic imagination , conveying the grandeur of nature through the medium of art , could alone accomplish .
I wandered in dreamy wonder and delight among these solitary abodes , and these beautiful lakes , and these eternal flowers ; and it seemed as if I were suddenly gifted with the power of song , and involuntarily gushed from me a torrent of richest sound , which , dying presently away , left me in a state of delicious and dreamy lassitude ; and sinking on the
velvet sward , my eyes wandered in voluptuous trance over the waters at my feet , in whose lucid depths , unbroken by a breath or ripple , the azure sky reflected lay true as in a mirror . A billowy sweep of seagreen and golden foliage ( broken only by niasses of shadow , or an occasional cedar rising up and stretchingout its black-green banner-like branches ) sloped gradually from
the horizon , like an amphitheatre , on every side , to the water ' s edge ; where the banks were overhung with the scarlet weepingash , and the sweet and mournful willow . The margin of the lake was fringed with the delicate and slender flag and tasselgrass ; the one rearing erect its stately head , the other arching and drooping , as pondering on its graceful beauty in the water , where ( as emblematical of the material and spiritual )
they lay reflected together with the white and yellow lotus , like gold and silver chalices , quiet and motionless as in xock crystal p lane . A solitary heron , poised on his slender prong , was basking under the shade of the overhanging willows ; and no sound of living thing disturbed the perfect Solitude . I lay a long , long time on these enchanting banks , and my soul had become
endued and imbued with the spirit of the place . It might have been the abode of the genius of Grace and Sadness ; every object was touched with the sweetest sorrow , all around wore aii air of profound melancholy ; and I lay in that state of deep and dreamy tenderness which comes after the passionate flooding * of
Untitled Article
The Opium-Trance . 648
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1836, page 643, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2662/page/55/
-